From Ohio to DC (recap of July 6)

Our trip to Ohio to celebrate Grandpa's birthday was phase one of a three part road trip. Our summer was going to be pretty uneventful this year, but we ended up with two long weekend trips back to back and decided that instead of going home for four days in between them that we'd head to our nation's capital city to visit Ian's dad. Caroline's family (Jon & Cindy with kids Mindy, Abby, Mickey and Kylie's buddy Caroline) was looking to add a few days on to our Guangdong girls reunion (phase three of our 1400 miles in 11 day road trip) and presto, we found ourselves with a family to hit the road with!

We met up with them and another family we were in China with (their daughter Jadyn is from Jiangxi) at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It was pretty amazing that we got to meet up with Jenny and Robert because they are missionaries in Albania. They are in the states this summer and had planned a road trip across the country to visit with family and friends. As it turns out Jenny's grandparents and my grandfather live about 30 minutes away from each other so we decided to take advantage of close proximity and share a meal together. Between the three families there were 8 kids and we adults were brave enough to sit them all down at one end of the table together. Overall they were well behaved and we had the chance to catch up on the past 17 months (how can it already have been that long...)

Of course photo shoots had to happen...

"Hey Jadyn, you gonna come down here for a picture?"

Caroline, Jadyn & Kylie ~ and no, I'm not too proud to admit they were bribed with candy to sit together...

All too soon it was time to pile into our cars and head on. We bid goodbye to Jenny, Robert, Austin, Tyler, and Jadyn and discussed our road plan with Caroline's family. Sometime after our long lunch at a picnic area I was driving. Ian and Kylie were both sacked out and I was getting to the point that I wanted to switch drivers because I was getting sleepy too. Then just up ahead movement on the side of the interstate caught my eye. For a second it looked like Chaucer (Traci's Giant Schnauzer) coming out of the trees up to the guard rail. With a second glance I realized that it wasn't a dog, but a black bear ~ and a LARGE one at that. I was mesmerized because I've never seen one outside of a zoo, and luckily thought to check my mirrors to see what traffic was around me. (I think I was wondering if anyone else was seeing what I saw). Then it put it's two front paws up on the guardrail and I thought to myself, "Holy cow, that bear is going to jump into the highway!" And sure enough it did! I had to slam on my breaks and swerve a bit (figuring if a deer can total a car that a bear is going to do a bit more damage) and still only missed it by about two feet. After that I wasn't tired anymore... (and Ian was done sleeping)

No kidding, five miles later we pass this sign.

Thanks for the warning...